Jeff Sullivan, MS,
Licensed Professional Counselor
Jeff Sullivan, MS,
Licensed Professional Counselor
All of our emotions, desires, thoughts, beliefs, values, and behaviors are either part of or flow from our inner experience. Inner Experience Counseling® considers all these factors and focuses on achieving specific outcomes with the least possible time and expense. Maintenance and follow-up sessions are available to ensure the durability of solutions, yet the main objective is to teach basic patterns while leading to the goal so that the client can become self-sufficient in managing his or her internal experience.
Inner Experience Counseling® consists of several core building blocks and a number of optional parts. The main core consists of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), with both being supported by principles of neurobiology. Optional components augmenting the core include motivational interviewing, mindfulness training, and hypnosis.
The core of Inner Experience Counseling® is built on Aaron Beck’s CBT model. Beck’s CBT is the gold standard of modern psychological counseling. A tremendous body of research supports its use across a vast number of applications — research that shows impressive results. Additionally, developers have expanded the concept of CBT into new treatment models such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT).
CBT centers on the idea that our thoughts (cognitions) lead to emotional, behavioral, and physical reactions. Further, our beliefs shape those cognitions. Change comes about from speaking back to those cognitions and beliefs and then physically testing those changes out in the real world. Learning how to become your own cognitive therapist has always been a goal of Beck’s.
Modern Neuro-Linguistic Programming grew from the original work done by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1970s. It beautifully complements CBT by filling in some gaps. If CBT is more about what we think, NLP is in part how we think. Where CBT claims that all emotions flow from cognitions, NLP presumes an emotion can be its own cognition. Our inner experience consists of images, inner dialog, emotions, sounds, feelings, beliefs, values, logic, and a relationship to time. We can directly create change by changing how we think.
NLP also adds its own dimensions to the counseling process. It opens the process up to the unconscious as well as the conscious mind. NLP works easily together with both mindfulness and hypnosis. It is a fantastic tool for increasing self-awareness and developing our most important relationship: the one we have with ourselves.
In many ways, the nature of our biological brain constrains the operation of our minds. This leads to both restrictions and approaches to change. The mind/body connection of the stress response, the way neurons function, the interaction of different brain regions, and the nature of memory all play a role in explaining behavior, and points in the direction of possible interventions.
In any process of change, we have choices. With questions of alcohol or substance use, in particular, we may wonder if we actually have a problem. With matters of weight, we may question what kind of changes we are willing to make to take our relationship with food in a different direction. Career choices can also lead to uncertainty. Motivational interviewing helps clarify our vision and set a direction for counseling.
We live in a fast-paced world, which often translates to a fast-paced inner world. The practice of mindfulness helps us be more present in the moment — to slow down and deepen our awareness of some part of our inner or outer world. It is a form of meditation and an excellent tool for reducing our stress by lessening internal pressure. Also, by keeping us centered in the present moment, mindfulness practice improves both relationships and problem-solving. You cannot truly be present with another person if your mind’s attention is split between them and somewhere else.
Hypnosis is a more guided, broader process than mindfulness, although the two share commonalities. Whereas mindfulness engages in the present, Hypnosis can be used to explore the past, reappraise memories, engage inner resources like creativity, imagine a different future, and open better communication with your own mind. The great hypnotherapist Milton Erickson once claimed to a group of psychiatrists that their clients were their clients because they were out of rapport with their own unconscious minds. If Hypnosis is used in Inner Experience Counseling®, it is distinctly different than the directive experiences found in smoking cessation or entertainment programs. It is about engaging better with your own mind, your past, and your own future.
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